The subject invention concerns a machine for producing ice-cream units, preferably in the form of ice-creams on sticks, known as ice-cream lollies. The machine comprises a chain-driven belt conveyor consisting of trays and provided with plates which are positioned on the trays and are provided with moulds for reception of the ice-creams.
The prior-art technology for producing ice-creams includes a large number of various methods which are adapted to the kind of ice-creams to be produced, that is, whether in the form of packages, cones or on a stick, so called ice-cream lollies.
According to one prior-art method ice-cream paste is filled into cones, preferably by means of a nozzle which is positioned above an advancing conveyor belt supporting the wafer cones. The wafer cones are advanced continuously and when ice-cream paste is filled into the cones the dispensing nozzles are moved in synchrony with the conveyor belt. This technique is also used to fill ice-cream paste into wafers shaped generally as moulds or boats. Furthermore, the technique is adapted to the production of ice-cream units to be wrapped in packages. Ice-cream units of this kind are produced by dispensing ice-cream paste through a nozzle and cutting it by means of knives or heated wires into units of the desired dimensions which are deposited on a conveyor belt consisting of plates which are forwarded past the ice-cream paste dispensing nozzles. The plates are secured to and driven by a chain. A device of this kind is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,623. The ice-cream conveyor belt advances the ice-creams from the nozzles further up to various treatment stations where the ice-cream units are finished off. Sometimes the ice-creams are to be stored for some period of time in a freezing chamber which is performed by forwarding the ice-creams at a low speed through the freezing chamber on the conveyor belt which travels in several loops through the chamber. As an example of prior-art technology of this kind reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,252.
Another prior-art method of producing ice-cream concerns the manufacture of ice-creams on sticks. According to this method a horizontally positioned wheel holding a number of ice-cream moulds in the form of recesses made in the wheel, is made to rotate very slowly while the moulds are filled with ice-cream paste which is dispensed from nozzles positioned above the wheel. The wheel is rotated further and the moulds eventually reach a device designed to insert sticks into the moulds. The device is arranged simply to push sticks into the ice-creams from above. The ice-cream paste is then allowed to freeze and the finished ice-cream lollies are lifted off the moulds and advanced for further treatment.
The method outlined above for the production of ice-cream units on sticks suffers from a number of disadvantages. The moulds which are in the form of recesses made in the wheel impose restrictions as to the possible variations of the configurations of the ice-cream units. The only variation open according to this method is the application of an external layer, such as a chocolate cover. The rotating wheel also means that the ice-cream production method is not adapted to conveyor belt transport of the ice-cream units at a low speed into and inside the freezing chamber. This lack of adaptability results in a rate of productivity much below the desired one in the manufacture of ice-cream units.